1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information provision system for providing information such as guide information and geographical information to users by means of display and others if a user makes a request and an information regenerator used for the above system.
The present invention also relates to a method and a system of data communication such as facsimile communication and electronic mail using a mobile radiocommunication network for Japanese personal handyphone system (PHS) and mobile telephone for example, a communication terminal and a server used for the above system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable information processing display terminal such as an electronic notebook is widely popularized. As for such an information processing display terminal, a user can utilize provided information at necessary time and in a necessary place because various provided information is stored in an internal memory. However, as such an information processing display terminal is portable, a mass memory cannot be provided as to an internal memory and the quantity of providable information is limited. As provided information cannot be updated without rewriting contents stored in a memory or without replacing memories, it is difficult to acquire the latest information.
The former problem of the capacity of memory can be improved to some extent by storing provided information in a card according to PC Card Standard for example, providing a card reader to a portable information processing display terminal and exchanging cards. However, in this case, a user is required to buy plural cards in which various information including information low in a frequency is stored and a user is economically burdened. In addition, to acquire the latest information, a user is required to buy a card in which new information is stored and bears an economic burden.
In the meantime, recently various information provided to the Internet is often acquired by a personal computer via a modem and is often regenerated on the screen of a display or via a speaker. If a personal computer has only to have a memory area in which extracted information can be stored in case information provided to the Internet is utilized, a personal computer can utilize information, the personal computer can utilize information and a terminal itself is not required to have a mass memory.
A portable information processing display terminal to which a modem and data communication facility are added and which can acquire information provided to the Internet in view of the advantages of utilizing information provided to the Internet is also provided.
If information provision service via the Internet is demanded, generally, a user of a personal computer and a portable information processing display terminal makes a contract of information provision service with a specific Internet service provider (hereinafter called ISP). When the above user receives actual information provision service, he/she can receive providable information from an ISP server by accessing to ISP under the above contract so as to connect ISP and his/her own terminal and requesting the provision of information.
In this case, information which individual ISP can provide is limited to information which ISP collects from the provider of contents who subscribes to the network of the ISP and with which ISP itself is provided. Therefore, when information which cannot be obtained from one ISP is required, a user is required to make a contract with ISP which can provide the information separately.
As a user is required to select ISP depending upon required information and access to the selected ISP in a situation in which the user makes a contract with plural ISPs as described above, he/she is required to remember what information each ISP can provide and operation to request the provision of information is troublesome.
The specification of provided information may be different every ISP and if a terminal receives information provision service from plural ISPs as described above, the terminal is required to be provided with an application program according to the specification of each information and hardware according to circumstances. The above point is particularly a problem in the case of a portable information processing display terminal in which the reduction of the load of an application program and the simplification of hardware are important.
Radio data communication service in which the radiocommunication of various data such as text data and image data in addition to voice communications is enabled takes notice because of the popularization of a portable radiocommunication terminal such as a PHS terminal and the speedup of the transmission speed of data communication using these portable radiocommunication terminals.
In case a PHS terminal is used, data communication in the approximately same transmission speed of 32 kbit/s as the transmission speed of 28.8 kbit/s or 33.6 kbit/s in case a modem is used on an analog telephone line is enabled and the communication of an electronic mail, facsimile transmission and others are enabled outdoors via a portable radiocommunication terminal.
For facsimile transmission, a so-called FAX modem is required to be mounted and there is a problem that a portable radiocommunication terminal is large-sized and the cost is increased. Therefore, heretofore, facsimile transmission directly specifying a destination number from a portable radiocommunication terminal is disabled and for example, facsimile transmission service by a service provider via the service provider (ISP) of the Internet is utilized.
However, in this case, after a user once executes operation for processing for connecting to the service provider of the Internet, he/she is required to execute operation for facsimile transmission and the operation is troublesome.
As it is difficult to provide the function of a printer for outputting the hard copy of receive data to a small-sized portable terminal in case a portable radiocommunication terminal is particularly provided with a function for receiving an electronic mail and a facsimile, receive data is stored in a memory and only a required part is displayed on a display.
If it is expected that mass data is sent, it is desirable that a memory for storing receive data is a mass storage. However, to maintain the portability of a small-sized portable radiocommunication terminal, that is, to prevent a terminal from being large-sized, it is generally difficult to provide a bulk memory. Therefore, heretofore, there is a problem that the quantity of data which a portable radiocommunication terminal can receive is small, plural pieces of receive data cannot be stored in a memory and important receive data cannot be stored. The above problem is particularly remarkable in the case of facsimile data processed as bit map data (dot image data) because the quantity of data is large.
To maintain the miniature, of a portable radiocommunication terminal, a portable radiocommunication terminal is connected to a portable personal computer via a cable and the memory of the personal computer is used for storing receive data. However, in that case, the portable radiocommunication terminal and the portable personal computer are required to be carried simultaneously and it is inconvenient.
As described above, even if a portable radiocommunication terminal and a portable personal computer are connected, for the personal computer, the memory is only utilized for storing receive data and if receive data is processed and displayed, for example, a part of receive data is enlarged or turned and the receive data is displayed, the above enlargement or turning is executed by the application program of a portable radiocommunication terminal and then, the receive data is displayed.
However, there is a problem that if the microcomputer of a portable radiocommunication terminal runs such various application programs, the load of the microcomputer of the portable radiocommunication terminal is increased.
A list of receive data and others are generated by a personal computer and provided to a portable radiocommunication terminal, however, as a portable radiocommunication terminal is constituted so that for the above list, processing such as a sort under a condition desired by a user is executed by an application program, there is also a problem in relation to the above point that the load of the microcomputer of a portable radiocommunication terminal is increased.
When the sending/receiving of facsimile data and an electronic mail and receiving the above information provision service respectively via a portable radiocommunication terminal are enabled as described above, functions for processing and capacity for processing required for a portable radiocommunication terminal vary according to the type of the use, the taste and others of a user of a portable radiocommunication terminal.
For example, for a user who does not need the sending/receiving of facsimile data, an electronic mail and others, however desires to obtain audio information such as music provided by the server, he/she does not need a large liquid crystal display (LCD) for his/her portable radiocommunication terminal. Even for a user who needs the sending/receiving of facsimile data, an electronic mail and others, the size of a display area of LCD with which a portable radiocommunication terminal is provided or a display system of color display or monochrome display and others may differ depending upon the type of the utilization and the taste of the user. Therefore, it is desirable that for a portable radiocommunication terminal operated by a user, plural types of portable radiocommunication terminals different in functions for processing and capacity for processing are prepared.
However, if portable radiocommunication terminals different in functions for processing and capacity for processing are prepared, an application program for processing information sent from the server according to its own functions for processing and capacity for processing is required for each portable radiocommunication terminal. For example, an application program and others for displaying character information and image information from the server according to the size of provided LCD are required and finally, the load of the portable radiocommunication terminal is increased.
It is wasteful for the server to send information which cannot be processed such as character information and image information to a portable radiocommunication terminal without a display function for example. In this case, even if the portable radiocommunication terminal cannot process the information, the communication cost is required to send it and such a situation is not desirable.
The present invention is made to solve the above problems and the object is to provide a system and an information regeneration terminal which can receive a variety of latest information by the simple operation of accessing to an information provision source without increasing the load of the hardware and an application program of an information regeneration terminal for regenerating provided information.
To solve the problems, there is provided an information provision system characterized in that the information provision system according to the present invention includes a server and an information regeneration terminal, the above server is connected to one or plural information provision devices for providing information via a network or a leased line, the above server is provided with means for generating a channel between the server and an information regeneration terminal in response to a request for connection from the information regeneration terminal and means for receiving the request to provide information from the above information regeneration terminal, acquiring the requested provided information from the above information provision device via a network or a leased line and sending it to the information regeneration terminal via the above channel, and the above information regeneration terminal is provided with means for receiving a request for connection from a user, sending the request for connection to the server and generating a channel between the information regeneration terminal and the server, means for sending a request to provide provided information to the server via the channel based upon operation by the user for a request for provided information and means for acquiring and regenerating the provided information from the server.
In the present invention constituted as described above, the server is connected to one or plural information provision devices for providing information via a network such as the Internet. The information regeneration terminal specifies desired information and sends a request to provide the information.
When the server receives the request to provide the information, it acquires the information from an information provision device which can provide the requested information and sends it to the information regeneration terminal. The information regeneration terminal receives the information and can regenerate it.
As described above, according to the present invention a user of an information regeneration terminal can be provided information which an information provision device connected to a server can provide only by making a contact with the provider of the server. That is, a user of an information regeneration terminal is not required to make a contract with the provider of an individual information provision device even if desired information is owned by plural information provision devices.
As information can be provided by communication between an information regeneration terminal and a server, the protocol and the data format of communication are defined uniquely and an information regeneration terminal is also not required to be provided with a processing function suitable for such an individual data format as in the case of communication with plural information provision devices.
As information stored in a server is not provided but provided information is acquired from an external information provision device connected to the server via a network, the latest information can be always provided if information stored in an external information provision device always has only to be updated.
Another aspect of the present invention in is characterized in that the above server is provided with means for sending the information of the list of providable information to an information regeneration terminal via a channel after generating the channel in response to the request for connection from the information regeneration terminal, the above information regeneration terminal is provided with means for receiving the information of the list of providable information from the server and providing it to the above user and operation for requesting the provision of information by the user is operation for selecting provided information from the list.
In the above present invention the server sends the list of information which can be provided by any connected information provision device for example to an information regeneration terminal which requests connection to the server. As the list is provided to a user with it displayed in the information regeneration terminal, desired information is selected based upon the list. Therefore, a user can check information which a server can provide in a list and request it.
Another aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the above information regeneration terminal and the above server are connected via a network to which another communication terminal is also connected and the information regeneration terminal sends identification information showing that the terminal is a terminal which may be provided information from the server in addition to the request for connection to the server, the server verifies the information regeneration terminal which can be provided information based upon the identification information and sends requested provided information to the information regeneration terminal in response to the request for the provision of information.
According to the present invention, an information regeneration terminal which can be provided information provision service from a server can be specified by offering only the information regeneration terminal related to the server by a contract for example identification information showing that the terminal is a terminal which can be provided information from the server.
Another aspect of the present invention is and characterized in that the above server is provided with a storage section for storing provided information, information which the above information provision device can provide and provided information stored in the storage section are included in the above list of providable information and when a request for the provision of information from the information regeneration terminal is a request for information which the information provision device provides, the server acquires required information from the information provision device via the above network and provides it to the information regeneration terminal.
According to the present invention, as information not required to be updated is stored in the storage section, the server can promptly correspond to a request for provision from an information regeneration terminal.
Another aspect of the present invention is and characterized in that a network to which the above information regeneration terminal and the above server are connected includes a network for a mobile telephone terminal and the information regeneration terminal is provided with radiocommunication means for communicating via a radio base station for a mobile telephone terminal.
According to the present invention, an information regeneration terminal is constituted by a mobile terminal provided with a radiocommunication facility. Therefore, a user of an information regeneration terminal can receive required information in an arbitrary location such as the destination of going out.
An information communication method according to the present invention is a method in which a server and a portable radiocommunication terminal are connected via a network by wireless, the portable radiocommunication terminal sends information in which a destination is specified in cooperation with the server, the server receives receive data addressed to the portable radiocommunication terminal and stores it in the storage means of the server and the portable radiocommunication terminal acquires the above receive data by requesting the server, and characterized in that the server executes processing for sending or receiving information to/from a destination and send/receive information is communicated according to a communication system suitable for the above network between the portable radiocommunication terminal and the server.
In the information communication method according to the present invention, the server is provided with an application program for sending or receiving and acts the sending or receiving of the portable radiocommunication terminal. The server is provided with a storage section for receive data, stores receive data addressed to the portable radiocommunication terminal and when a request is made from the terminal, the server sends the receive data to the terminal.
Therefore, as the portable radiocommunication terminal is not required to be provided with a mass memory and an application for sending or receiving according to a communication system suitable the network may be selected, the size of the portable radiocommunication terminal can be reduced to the minimum and the load is reduced.
Another information communication method according to the present invention one server and plural portable radiocommunication terminals are connected via a network by wireless, the respective plural portable radiocommunication terminals send information in which a destination is specified according to a defined communication system in cooperation with the server and receive information addressed to each, and characterized in that send/receive information is communicated according to predetermined protocol and data format suitable for the above network between the portable radiocommunication terminals and the server independent of the above defined communication system, the server receives send information including a request for calling when a user of the portable radiocommunication terminal makes a call to specify a destination to the above defined communication system, the server executes processing for information communication suitable for the above defined communication system, the server receives data addressed to the portable radiocommunication terminal and stores the above data every portable radiocommunication terminal in the storage means of the server and each portable radiocommunication terminal acquires the above data by requesting to the server.
In the information communication method according to the present invention, when a user operates to transmit a facsimile if a defined communication system is a facsimile transmission system for example, send information including a request for the calling of the facsimile is sent to the server according to predetermined protocol and data format suitable for a network, for example a format (image data) such as a text format and a graphics interchange format (GIF). The server converts the send information including the request for the calling of the facsimile according to a text format and GIF (image data) to facsimile data in a bit map format and sends it to the phone number of the other party included in the request for calling.
Therefore, according to the information communication method of to the present invention, a user of each portable radiocommunication terminal can transmit a facsimile only by operation for facsimile transmission including directly specifying the other party from the terminal. In addition, as the server is provided with an application program for facsimile transmission, the load of the microcomputer of the portable radiocommunication terminal is never increased.
As for example, any facsimile information addressed to each portable radiocommunication terminal is stored in the storage section of the server and an individual portable radiocommunication terminal can request and acquire facsimile information if necessary, a storage section with capacity enough to store the acquired facsimile information for example has only to be provided to each portable radiocommunication terminal. Therefore, a bulk memory is not required for the portable radiocommunication terminal.
Another information communication method according to the present invention is a method in which one server and plural portable radiocommunication terminals are connected via a network by wireless and each of the plural portable radiocommunication terminals receives information addressed to it in cooperation with the server, and characterized in that receive data addressed to the above portable radiocommunication terminal is stored every portable radiocommunication terminal in the storage means of the server, each of the portable radiocommunication terminals is provided with a function for sending a request to process and acquire the receive information addressed to it and stored in the storage means of the server to the server, the server reads the corresponding receive information from the storage means according to the request from the portable radiocommunication terminal, executes processing according to the above request and sends it to the portable radiocommunication terminal which issues the request.
In the information communication method according to the present invention, a mass storage is not required to be provided to a portable radiocommunication terminal and a user of a portable radiocommunication terminal can acquire and utilize receive information from the storage means of the server if necessary. In addition, in that case, the portable radiocommunication terminal can request to process receive information. For example, when a portable radiocommunication terminal requests to display receive information in an enlarged state, the server processes so that receive information is displayed in an enlarged state in response to the request and sends it to the portable radiocommunication terminal.
Therefore, in the information communication method according to the present invention, as an application program related to receive information is not required to be installed in a portable radiocommunication terminal, the load of the microcomputer of a portable radiocommunication terminal is reduced and the cost of the terminal is also reduced.
Another information communication method according to the present invention method in which one server and plural portable radiocommunication terminals are connected via a network by wireless and each of the plural portable radiocommunication terminals receives information addressed to it in cooperation with the server, and characterized in that receive data addressed to each portable radiocommunication terminal is stored every portable radiocommunication terminal in the storage means of the server, each portable radiocommunication terminal is provided with a function for sending a request to acquire information related to receive information addressed to it and stored in the storage means of the server to the server and a function for sending a request to process the above related information to the server and the server is provided with a function for receiving the request to acquire the above related information, for generating the related information based upon receive information addressed to a portable radiocommunication terminal which sends the above request to acquire which is stored in the storage means and for sending the generated related information to the portable radiocommunication terminal which sends the request to acquire and a function for processing the above related information according to a request to process the related information and for sending the processed related information to the portable radiocommunication terminal which sends the request to process the related information.
In the information communication method according to the present invention, the server generates information related to receive information, for example a receive list, sends the list to the corresponding portable radiocommunication terminal and it is displayed on the terminal. The portable radiocommunication terminal can issue a request to sort under a condition for example related to the receive list. The server executes the sort and sends the result of the sort to the portable radiocommunication terminal. Therefore, a portable radiocommunication terminal is not required to be provided with an application program for processing related information and the load of the microcomputer for software is not increased. Therefore, a portable radiocommunication terminal can be manufactured at a low price because it is also not required to be provided with a mass storage.
The object of the present invention is to provide a communication method and a communication system which enables utilization of plural portable radiocommunication terminals different in functions and capacity for processing without increasing the load of a portable radiocommunication terminal and causing a problem, a portable radiocommunication terminal used in the communication system and a server.
To achieve the above object, an information communication method according to the present invention is a method in which one server and plural portable radiocommunication terminals are connected via a network by wireless and the server executes data communication service in response to a request from each portable radiocommunication terminal, and characterized in that each portable radiocommunication terminal sends performance identification information for identifying at least functions or capacity respectively for processing with which the portable radiocommunication terminal is provided to the server, the server identifies at least functions or capacity respectively for processing with which each portable radiocommunication terminal is provided based upon the above performance identification information from each portable radiocommunication terminal and generates information sent to the corresponding portable radiocommunication terminal based upon the result of the identification.
In to the information communication method according to the present invention, performance identification information for identifying at least its own functions for processing or capacity for processing is sent to the server from each portable radiocommunication terminal. The performance identification information is information for identifying the functions for processing or the capacity for processing of a portable radiocommunication terminal such as whether a portable radiocommunication terminal is provided with a display function or not, the size of a display of the portable radiocommunication terminal, whether of color display or monochrome display and resolution.
The server identifies the capacity for processing or the functions for processing of a portable radiocommunication terminal which sends performance identification information based upon the performance identification information from the portable radiocommunication terminal. If information is sent from the server to the portable radiocommunication terminal, the server generates information according to the functions for processing and the capacity for processing of the portable radiocommunication terminal to which the information is sent and sends it.
Hereby, character information and image information are prevented from being sent to a portable radiocommunication terminal not provided with a display function for example. As the server processes the following display information according to the size and others of a display and provides it in case the server sends display information such as character information and image information to a portable radiocommunication terminal provided with a display function, each portable radiocommunication terminal can display the display information immediately provided without processing the display information from the server according to its own display capacity.
Another information communication method according to the present invention method in which one server and plural portable radiocommunication terminals are connected via a network by wireless and the server executes data communication service in response to a request from each portable radiocommunication terminal, and characterized in that the server stores terminal related information generated by relating the identification information of each portable radiocommunication terminal which can be connected via the network and information showing at least functions for processing or capacity for processing with which each portable radiocommunication terminal is provided, the server refers to the above terminal related information based upon identification information sent from each portable radiocommunication terminal, identifies at least functions for processing or capacity for processing of the portable radiocommunication terminal and generates information to be sent to the corresponding portable radiocommunication terminal based upon the above result of the identification.
In the information communication method, the server stores terminal related information generated by relating the identification information of any portable radiocommunication terminal which can be connected to the server via a network and information showing at least the functions for processing or the capacity for processing of each portable radiocommunication terminal.
The server identifies the functions for processing and the capacity for processing of a portable radiocommunication terminal based upon the identification information of the portable radiocommunication terminal sent to the server by the portable radiocommunication terminal in case connection is required and others by referring to terminal related information stored in the server. Information to be sent to the portable radiocommunication terminal is generated based upon the result of the identification.
Hereby, each portable radiocommunication terminal is not required to send information required for the server to identify the functions for processing or capacity for processing of the terminal itself. That is, the server can identify the functions for processing and the capacity for processing of a portable radiocommunication terminal based upon the identification information of the portable radiocommunication terminal sent from the portable radiocommunication terminal in normal processing, can generate information to be sent to the corresponding portable radiocommunication terminal according to the identified functions for processing and capacity for processing of the portable radiocommunication terminal and can provide the information to the corresponding portable radiocommunication terminal.